Google Defies US Over Search Requests

"We had lengthy discussions with them to try to resolve this, but were not able to and we intend to resist their motion vigorously," Google Associate General Counsel Nicole Wong said in a written statement cited by Agence France Presse (AFP).

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales filed a legal motion on Wednesday, January18 , in the Silicon Valley city of San Jose demanding Google to provide all queries entered on the company's Web search system between June 1 and July 31 of last year.

The motion also includes a request for the internet search giant to produce a random sample of one million Web address, known as URLs.

"Google is not a party to this lawsuit and their demand for information overreaches," averred Wong.

In a written release posted on the Internet, search engine Yahoo said it "complied on a limited basis and did not provide any personally identifiable information."

Software titan Microsoft said that it "works closely with law enforcement officials worldwide to assist them when requested" and its policy is to comply with the law in a "timely manner."

The Bush administration argues it needs the data to defend the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act in a federal court in the state of Pennsylvania.

The US Supreme Court has overturned a 1998 law requiring Web sites to check the ages of online visitors before granting adults access to online pornography, saying the law was so broad it could deny adults legitimate access to such sites.

Privacy Concerns

However, the government subpoena has raised serious privacy concerns.

"The subpoena is the first shoe dropping that online privacy advocates have long feared," said Beth Givens, the director of the nonprofit Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego, California.

Google stores user information in a single tracking "cookie" that could hold a rich load of data about anything from e-mail, online purchases, addresses, names, searched words, or other terms typed in.

"These search engines are a very tempting target for government and law enforcement," Givens added.

"Look at the millions of people who use search engines without thinking of the potential to be drawn into a government drag net."

Pam Dixon of the World Privacy Forum, a nonprofit, non partisan organization focused on conducting in-depth research and consumer education in the intersecting areas of technology and privacy, echoed similar concerns.

"If Google loses this, what is to stop the US government from making constant requests for all sorts of things, such as searches on terrorism or any company they are investigating," she maintained.

"Google could become the greatest research tool for the government that anyone ever envisioned. I certainly don't blame Google for fighting this."

US President George Bush has recently admitted authorizing the National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on US citizens without the necessary court warrants.

The New York Times said the NSA has "directly" tapped the country’s main communications systems without court-approved warrants.

Senator Arlen Specter, Chairman of Senate Judiciary Committee, said Sunday, January15 , that Bush could face impeachment and criminal prosecution if found to have violated the law by authorizing the domestic eavesdropping.

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